Nicked Strop.....Why?

[Huskysibe]

I keep nicking my strop and I dont know why. It tends to happen at the end of a stroke, I seem to back the razor up ever so slightly I guess. I try real hard to pay attention but I fear I am damaging my strop beyond repair. Also, what can I do to smooth out those nicks as I am sure they cant be good to strop a razor over can it? I have a Dovo Rindler and to me it looks like it cups when I pull, could it be that I am pulling too tight and its causing the edges to cup and thats why I am nicking it? Man this is gonna cost me to replace hehe

Billy

[joke1176]

go slooooow when you are stropping, and pay close attention to the pressure you put on the tip before you flip it over. The back-slide you think you are adding in there will become evident.

[IsaacRN]

SLOW IT DOWN.

Alot of damage can simply come from going to fast.

[mparker762]

You need to start your flip as the blade is slowing down towards the end of the stroke, and complete the flip after the blade has started moving the other way.

[Huskysibe]

Great suggestions, thanks! I guess I will cut those flaps of leather off and use some rubber cement.

[jlander]

Use a pumice stone to buff out the nicks. I can't improve on the previous suggestions except to say GOOOOOO SLOWWWW.

[loueedacat]

I use one of those particle boards women use for their nails to sand mine down. I definitely had less nicks once I slowed down.

A couple of tips based on my ample strop nicking experiences:

1. if you wear glasses, wear them stropping. A little miss = nick.

2. if you are rolling the edge down too hard to be sure you aren't stropping the spine, any flinch and you'll stab the strop.

3. even if you flip it correctly, if you move to fast it is easy to dig the blade into the strop as you lift off.

So (as everyone said), slow is of the essence.

[Huskysibe]

After I sand down the edges I will go nice and slow and pay attention to lifting teh blade before the end of the stroke.

[Chrisl]

The only other thing I would add to the other great advice you've been given is that if you're noticing that your strop is cupping, then nicks are not your only problem to worry about. a cupped strop (concave) is not making contact with the entire edge of your razor. Even with an X pattern stroke, a significantly cupped strop, will make for ineffective edge maintenance.

I started out with a Dovo 3" strop and after only a few good shaves from a honemeister honed new TI, I was getting terrible shaves. The honemeister was nice enough to take the razor back and give the edge a touch up; same thing, after a few shaves, crappy shaves. Well, no surprise, it wasn't the edge, it was me cupping my strop!

I still have that Dovo strop, but for months now, I've actually only been using a homemade strop with chromium oxide pasted balsa on one side (rarely need to use that) and some hand american leather on the other both bonded to 1/4" plexi in the middle. It's only about 8" long, fits easily in my medicine cabinet and has really been easy, fun and most of all highly effective to use. It's in a prototype and testing stage at this point.......:wink:

Chris L

[Huskysibe]

Allright, I cant thank you guys enough! I swiped a fingernail file from my wife and sanded down those nicks. Then I proceeded to strop away, going VERY slow and lifting the blade edge BEFORE the end of the stroke. Wow, what a difference that made. Thanks for the tips, I certainly appreciate it.

Billy